A healthy take on the very not healthy Scotch egg (recipe)

Frankly, it's hard to produce a healthy rendering of a Scotch egg. But we decided to give it a go because these delicious little calorie bombs are just too tempting.

For anyone not familiar with them, a Scotch egg is a hard-boiled egg that is coated in in sausage, then deep-fried. They can be eaten cold or -- to add a few more calories -- hot with a side of gravy. However you eat them, the end result is a salty-savory-crunchy-tender-meaty ball of wonderful.

As we looked at the recipe, we found really only one place to cut back -- the frying. If you cut the egg or the sausage, it simply isn't a Scotch egg. But the frying was a possibility, especially since eliminating that also would make Scotch eggs easier to make (few of us enjoy deep-frying at home).

And it turned out that baking the eggs in a very hot oven worked nicely, producing a perfectly crisp outer coating without overcooking the tender egg inside.

BAKED SCOTCH EGGS

Start to finish: 1 hour

Servings: 6

INGREDIENTS

7 eggs, divided

1 pound loose breakfast sausage meat

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 cups panko breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS

Place 6 eggs in a medium saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cover and remove the pan from the heat. Allow to sit for 8 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water until chilled.

Divide the sausage into 6 equal patties, using about 1/3 cup each, then set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining egg with the flour until smooth. Place the panko in another small bowl.

When the eggs are cool, heat the oven to 450 F. Carefully remove the egg shells and use paper towels to blot dry the eggs. One at a time, place each egg on one of the sausage patties. Use your hands to flatten and wrap the sausage around the egg until completely enclosed in sausage.

Dip each sausage covered egg first in the beaten egg, then in the panko. Mist each egg with cooking spray and arranging them on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and the sausage is cooked through. Serve immediately.